Dear All.

Please find included below some high-level notes from today’s Council meeting, helping you to navigate through the recording of the call.

Best regards.

Joke

1. Welcome and roll call

Welcome by Chair Katrina. Not quorate yet, meeting will start and voting will wait until the meeting is quorate.

Apologies from Maarten, Sebastien who are attending the GNSO Council meeting. They might join later. Apologies received also from Margarita, Marie-Noemie, Abdalla.

Recordings will be posted on the Council workspace:

https://community.icann.org/x/8gBACQ .

2. Minutes & Action Items

a. Minutes Meeting 169, circulated to the list 15 February 2021.

b. Action items and To-do’s, if any

3. Intermeeting Decisions (since 21 January 2021)

• Approval Terms of Reference OISC.

• Defer meeting with full Board

• Appointment Members IGLC

• Appointment Members MPC

• Appointment ccnSO Members Community Excellence Award Committee

4. ccPDP 3

a. Part 1 Retirement – Update

The third ccNSO Policy Development Process Working Group (ccPDP3-RET) on the retirement of ccTLDs has concluded its work: the group submitted its final paper to the Issue Manager for further consideration by the ccNSO. The Issue Manager is now seeking public comments on 2 aspects:

- the final proposed policy recommendations on the retirement of ccTLDs

- the proposal to separate the development of the retirement policy (part A) from the development of a review mechanism for decisions on delegation, transfer, revocation and retirement of ccTLDs (part B).

The public comment period will close 2 April 2021. If the separation is supported, the ccNSO decision process on the retirement policy will start already in April 2021, without waiting for the completion of part B. First to Council, for support and approval, and then to ccNSO membership. There is a quorum role. Councillors are invited to engage their peers and engage them in the voting process.

b. Part 2 Review Mechanism –Update

Last meeting: yesterday. The meeting before that, ICANN legal (Sam Eisner) joined. Good discussion.

5. IDN ccPDP4: Update

Gradual progress, based on original text from ccPDP2. The Full WG makes gradual progress. Fine-tuning an existing text.

1 out of 3 sub-WGS has been convened. Works on variant management. Their first meeting will be on 2 March. They will look at the work to date from ICANN’s IDN dpt and what has happened in the GNSO with regards to SubPro.

The ccNSO PDP4 working group - which develops policy recommendations for the (de-)selection of Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) ccTLD strings - has started its review of the 2013 ccNSO policy proposals for IDN ccTLD string selection criteria, processes and required documentation.

The 2013 policy proposals did not include the topic of variant management, however a new ccPDP4 subgroup will start its work on variant management in February. The ICANN Board requested to address variant management in coordination with GNSO efforts. The full ccPDP4 Working Group and the subgroup will work in parallel: each group will meet on alternate Tuesdays. In future, two additional subgroups are foreseen:

on confusing similarity
on the deselection of IDN ccTLDs

The results of ccPDP4 will replace the 2009 IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. To stay informed about the work of this group, consult its workspace

6. Adoption Response to Board OEC letter

Move? Stephen

Second? Giovanni

Alejandra: comment regarding the ending of the letter. Jordan supports Alejandra’s suggestion.

No objections

Against? No

Abstain? No

All in favour

7. Approval of IANA Naming Function Contract Amendment per IFRT recommendation

Suggestion to remove a sentence.

According to bylaws changes need to be approved by ccNSO and GNSO Councils?

Move? Alejandra

Second? Javier

Questions or comments? None

Against? None

Abstain? None

All in favour

8. Call for volunteers Outreach & Involvement Standing Committee

Will incorporate 2 existing committees.: Travel Funding Committee, Community Onboarding Programme Committee. Broader scope. Oversee various outreach and engagement activities. Coordinate efforts, strategise. Not replacing any other work. Website revamp (outreach and involvement, but separate).

Joke: Call for volunteers will be launched Friday, closed 12 March. Basic selection criteria. Council will be asked to review the applications and select members.

In favour? Several green ticks

Against? None

9. Adoption ccNSO Statement procedure regarding the Amendment of Article 10 ICANN Bylaws

The Drafting Team completed its work. Cover letters and attachment (table with revisions) were sent to Council previously. Decision to adopt now.

Suggestion to include “ccTLD Manager” in article 10 (original text speaks about “sponsoring organisation”

2 issues brought to the attention of Council:

The drafting team wishes to inform the Council that the principle of one vote per member for those organizations or entities that manage multiple ASCII ccTLDs will not be affected by the proposed Bylaw change. This implies that those organizations or entities that have become member for two or more ccTLDs and have become member of the ccNSO will still be able to cast two or more votes in formal voting processes (in the Board nomination process, the Council elections and in membership approval voting of ccPDPs). As was noted in the ccPDP2 part 2, this issue may need to be addressed at one point, to ensure parity of members, who run multiple ccTLDs. Note, Organizations or entities who run multiple IDN ccTLDs related to one (1) country or territory will at a maximum have one (1) vote.
The drafting team wishes to inform Council that the bylaw change will have consequences for the ccNSO Council election guideline and ccNSO Board nomination guideline (see: https://ccnso.icann.org/en/about/guidelines.htm [ccnso.icann.org] ), following Article 10, Section 10.4(h): nomination by any ccNSO member. It advises the Council to ask the GRC to look at this issue in due time.

(Voting done at the end of the jamboard session)

Against? None

Abstain? None

All in favour

10. Update ICANN70 (related) sessions

Overview by Alejandra

1 March 2021 | 16:00 UTC – Trends session (Council & SOPC)

9 March 2021 | 19:00 UTC - ccTLD News Session #1

11 March 2021 | 11:00 UTC - ccTLD News session #2

16 March 2021 | 18:00 UTC – Council Workshop

17 March 2021 | 19:00 UTC – Joint session: ccNSO and GNSO Councils

17 March 2021 | 20:30 UTC - ccTLD community webinar for newcomers #1

18 March 2021 | 11 UTC - ccTLD community webinar for newcomers #1

18 March 2021 | 12:00 UTC. – Council ICANN70 prep

25 March 2021 | 17:30-19:00 UTC – ICANN70 Council meeting

16 April 2021 | 08:00 UTC - ccPDP Webinar for GAC and others #1

16 April 2021 | 16:00 UTC - ccPDP Webinar for GAC and others #2

22 April 2021 | 12:00 UTC – April Council meeting

Reminder for the trends session. Registration: https://forms.gle/QAs9kynTCcVgDXDcA

Links to bookmark now:

· ccNSO Schedule & Remote Participation Hub:

The one-stop page for all your remote participation queries

https://community.icann.org/x/fwlACQ

· Agenda ICANN70 ccNSO Members Meeting

https://community.icann.org/x/2AlACQ

· Pre-ICANN70 sessions

https://community.icann.org/x/uQpACQ

· Agenda ICANN70 Tech Day

https://community.icann.org/x/nYBeCQ

· Agenda ICANN70 ccTLD News

https://community.icann.org/x/uQpACQ

All are warmly invited to attend the sessions. If there is feedback regarding how the meeting went, please let the MPC know and fill out the satisfaction survey

a. ccTLDs related sessions

i. Tech Day

ii. Members meeting sessions

1. Governance session

2. ccTLDs: looking at the future

3. Q&A ccTLD related Board members

4. IGLC: Digital Sovereignty

iii. ccTLD News sessions

b. Joint meetings:

i. Meeting with the Board: Update

No meeting with the full Board, but suggestion to extend the invite for the ccTLD-related ICANN Board members during the question and answer session, and to invite Maarten and Leon as well. Pending feedback from Maarten and Leon

ii. Meeting with GAC: Update

Webinar about ccPDP3 and ccPDP4 to inform them. Post ICANN70

iii. Meeting with GNSO Council: Update

Previously asked for topics and suggestions. Our liaisons came up with some suggestions.

c. Council workshop: Tuesday 16 March 2021, 20.00 UTC

i. Review role of chair and vice -chairs, Roles and responsibilities of Councillors

ii. Work plan

iii. Other?

d. Council Preparatory meeting, Thursday 18 March 12.00 UTC

11. Update ECA & CSC

a. ECA

Rejection action upcoming. Gearing up for a busier season, until June

b. CSC (Informational)

100% SLA’s met.

12. Update Chair, Vice-Chairs, Councillors, RO’s and Secretariat

Katrina explained there was a meeting with Council leadership. Demo on website improvements.

Features for the website were discussed. Google analytics. Look at how to structure Docs and place them on the website.

Alejandra. Mentorship for fellowship programmes started. Alejandra is currently a mentor. 5 fellows and alumni. Jenifer is the new mentor, she is shadowing Alejandra currently, and her term starts before ICANN71.

Katrina: we received notes from the policy team regarding the call between the ccNSO Council leadership team and Goeran. Survey on ICANN public meeting strategy. We responded, and discussed and commented on the proposal by ICANN org. Goeran was not pleased. Process was broken, Katrina does not agree.

13. Update WGs

a. SOPC

Comments submitted on

SOPC feedback was not so positive, trying to receive additional numbers. Hope to have a meeting with ICANN Finance to discuss the feedback and to ask additional questions

b. IGLC

Preparing session as part of ICANN70 on digital sovereignty

c. GRC

Preparing for a governance session, and working on the Rules of the ccNSO. Additional work upcoming, following the changes to article 10 of the ICANN Bylaws

The ccNSO Guideline Review Committee (GRC) seeks feedback from the community on the following documents:

Guideline: ccNSO Appointment Procedures
WG/Committee (Vice-)Chair Nomination Process.

Deadline for feedback is end February

14. Update liaisons

a. Update ALAC Liaison (written)

b. Update GNSO Liaison (written)

15. Meetings

Katrina warmly invites Councilors to attend the trends exercise.

1 March 2021 | 16:00 UTC – Trends session (Council & SOPC)

Pre-registration required. Limited number of seats available

Registration: https://forms.gle/QAs9kynTCcVgDXDcA

Engagement on DNS Abuse. Questions by Keith (GNSO) sent to Katrina, who forwarded the email to the Council mailing list. Nick. no policy creation for ccNSO members on DNS abuse

ccTLD managers, especially European ccTLDS, are spending a lot of time. How to avoid more regulation, how to prove competence, how to ensure our voices are heard in the right places. We could participate in a talking group, but we each create our own policies.

Educate the ccTLDs. We each do what is right for our own audiences (structure, history-dependent)

Show how good the ccTLDs are, compared to the gTLDS. Perfect opportunity to prove it with facts, figures, best practices. No need to follow the icann mandated procedures.

Katrina: since you are not in favour of a group, perhaps a Liaison to the group?

Nick: open call.

Jordan: if we do not have a group, and do not explain how we do it differently, we risk to be enveloped in the ICANN umbrella.

Stephen: not a WG per se. But we also need to make sure to distinguish ourselves.

Katrina: how to ensure we get info back

Stephen: liaison effort.

Alejandra: If we want to join the effort, we need a structure to do so.

Committee or WG would be a good idea. Why do others disagree?

Jordan: open call, see who joins, discuss with them whether we need a group. Or is it enough to have an open call for those interested in the topics.

Stephen: agrees with Jordan. WG is overkill now. Can be addressed by our liaisons

Katrina: need to make sure it remains not to be an issue for ccTLDS

Nicks: other DNS abuse fora. PIR set up a DNS Abuse Institute. Hot topic. ccTLDs can’t be complacent about it.

Katrina: we will prepare info for the community. Draft to be shared with the council first, before sending it to the community. See what the reaction will be.

Next Council Meetings:

· 25 March (ICANN70) 17:30-19:00 UTC

· 22 April – 12:00 UTC

· 20 May – 18.00 UTC

16. AOB

17. Discussion session on what needs to be included in future Rules of the ccNSO (if time permits)

Jamboards. https://jamboard.google.com/d/1aVUQgWkelS-LuIrIT6QnrEDfQy73e9skb7Iifrauafg/edit?usp=sharing

List of currently identified topics for the rules of the ccNSO. Shared previously with all, and included on frame 3. 2 breakout rooms: Managed by Bart and Katrina respectively. We will brainstorm first today, and then briefly compare notes. And further discuss at the Council workshop.

Report by Bart

Yellow sticky notes. Green ones added for clarification.

Current Quorum of the members (50%): do not include.
However: Include Minimum quorum, fixed number of members (20 or 25). Otherwise it undermines the ability to govern the ccNSO. Adverse effect.
Veto members council decision. Should be recognised heavy lifting is done by Councilots. There should be a mechanism for recourse by Council. Must include. Part of broader accountability discussion. Change mechanism, difference between rules and the guidelines.

Report by Katrina

Group disagrees on most aspects.
Need to explain what the rules are, what the bylaws and guidelines are. How they interrelate, how they can be changed
Must include:

quorum rule. 50%
Give right to Council to manage the meetings. No details
Diversity: at least 2 members from every region. No strict requirement

Nice to include
- Align our practice with icann.
- Termination of ccnso membership
Do not include:
- Ratification vote. Has never been used.

Bart: further discussion needed.

Several councilors appreciated the exercise.

Nick: Need to explain what the rules are, what the bylaws and guidelines are. How they interrelate, how they can be changed

Bart: there needs to be a place which succinctly explains what you just said. Organic growth of all the rules. The GRC has started to condense the number of documents (selection process for instance. From 5 or 6 to 1)

18. Closure

Thanks all. Bye!

Joke Braeken

ccNSO Policy Advisor

joke.braeken@icann.org